THEO ROSS

ASPIRING JOURNALIST • THEY/HE

Theo (Mia) Ross An image of a red-crowned Amazon parrot in a tree at Will Rogers State Historic Park, shot by me.
Senior Capstone •

Urban birds: The naturalized parrots of Southern California

More and more Californians have reported seeing colorful avians soaring over their homes, even in the city. Especially in the city. It poses the question: where did they come from, why are they here, and are they here to stay?


When the pandemic sent everyone home from my college and we were ordered to stay inside to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus, I happily obliged. I arrived home in Buena Park with a little too much excitement, given the dire state of the world at the time. But m...
Photo courtesy of AP Virginia Delegate Danica Roem, left, takes a selfie with Natalie Landin, of Charlottesville, Va., after a news conference to announce the Human Rights Campaign's historic endorsement of 27 pro-equality candidates across Virginia on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019 in Richmond, Va.
Annenberg Media •

‘We’re not going back to zero’ Transgender politicians are challenging the status quo

Transgender people are regularly made the subject of polarizing political debates. From bathroom bills to legislation banning gender-affirming healthcare for trans youths, they are being forcefully wedged between Democrats and Republicans as a theoretical problem to be dealt with in American politics.

Less often are they seen as people who have to deal with the effects of such legislation, let alone allowed to weigh in on discussions of their rights from a position of power. According to the LG...
Theo (Mia) Ross A frame from my documentary of emo rap artist Hamilton performing to a small crowd in an underground venue, surrounded by blue and green lights.
Annenberg Media •

Five underground musicians relay their musings through 808s and synths

Music, by nature, is a collaborative process undergone with peers of a similar mindset. Yet in most scenarios, one isn’t sharing a refrigerator with those same colleagues. For this quintet, the latter is the case.

In this story we meet five individual artists whose love for music is only heightened by the fact that they are constantly surrounded by it. All living in one house and producing music as a co-operative, this team outlines the importance of their work in the larger narrative of music...
James Wolfe | Daily Trojan The Elaine and Kenneth Leventhal School of Accounting building at the University of Southern California, photographed for The Daily Trojan by photographer James Wolfe.
Daily Trojan •

Leventhal receives best graduate accounting program award

When the TFE Times released its 2020 report on the best graduate accounting programs in the country in January, faculty and students in the Leventhal School of Accounting were unsurprised that USC came in first.


TFE Times, a popular academia site that publishes university rankings each January, bases rankings on factors such as mean GMAT scores, starting salary of graduates and acceptance rate. 


Leventhal Dean William Holder said the ranking reflects the school’s hardworking students and f...
Daily Trojan A Daily Trojan file photo of USC President Carol Folt, walking outside of the Bovard Auditorium.
Daily Trojan •

Advisory group makes sustainability education a priority

In alignment with her plans to make USC a sustainable campus, President Carol Folt announced the Presidential Sustainability Working Group in early February, a task force focused on creating recommendations for a more sustainable campus through education, research and operations.


In the campus-wide email, Folt said the task force was a University-wide approach to campus sustainability by surveying students and faculty on how they can improve the University’s sustainability efforts. 


“Our r...
Emily Sagen | Daily Trojan Steven Vargas, executive director of the Queer and Ally Student Assembly, led protesters in chants of “Love trumps hate” and “Homophobia has to go” at Exposition Boulevard and Vermont Avenue.
Daily Trojan •

Students protest anti-LGBTQ group

More than 50 students and faculty protested an off-campus Westboro Baptist Church demonstration along Exposition Boulevard and Vermont Avenue Monday. Protesters wore rainbow-colored attire and carried signs that read “Love not hate” and “God loves.” 


Westboro Baptist, a group from Kansas known for its rallying against the LGBTQ community, picketed the Oscars Sunday near the Dolby Theater and stayed in Los Angeles through Monday to preach their message at USC and other schools in the area incl...
Vincent Leo | Daily Trojan Student environmental groups led the protest with chants of “Divest! Divest! It’s in our best interest” as protestors held signs with slogans such as “No time for fossil fools.”
Daily Trojan •

Students rally for fossil fuel divestment

Students and faculty crowded around Tommy Trojan Monday bearing posters with slogans like “No time for fossil fools” and “I refuse to pay for a college that won’t be here long enough for me to graduate” to protest USC’s role in advancing climate change through their investments in fossil fuels.


More than 100 students attended the Divest SC Rally hosted by Environmental Core and the Environmental Student Assembly, which was co-sponsored by nine other programming boards in the Undergraduate Stu...
Gary Kazanjian | AP Fresno police Investigator Brooke Passmore heads to the scene on Lamona Ave. where a shooting took place at a house party which involved multiple fatalities and injuries in Fresno, Calif., Monday, Nov. 18, 2019.
Annenberg Media •

Coverage of the three mass shootings in California hints at media bias

California has experienced a recent surge in shootings and gun violence, as three mass shootings have occurred since Thursday in Santa Clarita, Fresno, and Paradise Hills. Across news platforms, the Saugus High School shooting in Santa Clarita has received in-depth coverage in comparison to the limited exposure and misinformation circulated in the reporting on the Fresno Hmong community shooting.

The Saugus High School shooting took place Nov. 14, in Santa Clarita. A student, on the day of his...
Daily Trojan The Daily Trojan's logo.
Daily Trojan •

Ambassadors discuss US-China relations, Hong Kong protests

Tensions were high in the Annenberg School for Communication auditorium as Clayton Dube of USC’s U.S.-China Institute sat down with Ambassador Jeffrey Bader and Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Los Angeles Zhang Ping for a discussion on United States-China relations Tuesday. 


The discussion was held just hours after the U.S. Senate approved the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, legislation dedicated to supporting protesters in Hong Kong fighting for democracy. 


Z...
Eric Gay | AP FILE - In this July 7, 2015 file photo, immigrants from El Salvador and Guatemala who entered the country illegally board a bus after they were released from a family detention center in San Antonio. Attorneys on Friday, Aug. 30, 2019, asked a judge to reject Trump administration plans to detain migrant families longer than they're allowed now and to remove court oversight of how children are treated in government custody.
Annenberg Media •

Migrant children being held by US is at an all time high

A new government report has revealed that the Trump administration has held nearly 70,000 migrant children in detention centers over the course of 2019.

This number is cumulative over the course of 2019, there are not currently 70,000 children being held in detention centers. Nonetheless, the amount of children being held in detention centers is at an all-time high.

Compared to other countries, the US holds significantly large amounts of children.

In Canada, migrant children are only separate...
Jeff Chiu | AP In this June 3, 2019, file photo Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif. Apple said Monday, Nov. 4, that it's committing $2.5 billion to combat California's housing crisis.
Annenberg Media •

Apple announces $2.5 billion for affordable housing, public officials respond

Apple’s announcement to commit $2.5 billion towards California’s housing crisis was met with mixed response from public officials Monday. This amount marks the largest contribution following a string of donations from Silicon Valley tech companies.

Apple’s donation designates $1 billion for an affordable housing investment fund, which would allow developers to build more low-to-moderate income housing. Another $1 billion will fund a first-time buyer mortgage assistance program, which is primari...
Ling Luo | Annenberg Media Weight scale smashing booth at the Body Love Fair hosted by the Student Assembly for Gender Empowerment.
Annenberg Media •

Student group spreads body positivity with an on-campus fair

USC’s Student Assembly for Gender Empowerment (SAGE) hosted its second annual Body Love Fair in Alumni Park Thursday. The fair is one of a series of events put on by SAGE in celebration of its Body Love Month.

Body Love Month is a part of SAGE’s yearlong body positivity initiative that encourages people to love and embrace their bodies regardless of perceived flaws and differences. SAGE created Body Love Month “to raise awareness about body positivity, body diversity, and other discussions incl...
Kate Lonczak | Annenberg Media A photo of City Hall, where this year's Indigenous Peoples' Day celebration will take place.
Annenberg Media •

Honoring indigenous people in Los Angeles

On Sunday, Oct. 13, Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell will host Los Angeles County’s second annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration at City Hall and Grand Park.

The event’s theme, “Past, Present, and Future,” is meant to coincide with calls for state and federal authorities to formally change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

This call for change came as activists condemned Columbus as an agent of the mass genocide of indigenous people of North and Central America.

Colu...
Ben Butcher | Daily Trojan A person holding JUUL vape pods, a JUUL battery, and a Pink Lemonade flavored PUFF Bar vapor device.
Daily Trojan •

California takes tougher stance on e-cigarettes popular on campus

During her freshman year, Aadi Ghildiyal remembers sitting on a kitchen floor in Cale and Irani Residential College watching her friends pass around a STIIIZY, a common THC vape pen, while they all hung out. Each time Ghildiyal was handed the pen, she declined to try it and passed it along to her other friends.


Ghildiyal, now a sophomore majoring in chemistry, said she never wanted to vape and wasn’t surprised when Los Angeles County health officials recently urged residents to stop vaping af...